Mark Webber: 'F1 driver pool has never been weaker'

[Blotto]

when paid rides have stopped then maybe the field will be better until then it will always be a weak field.

 

[Lorenzo Bonder]

I've been saying Nasr should have been in F1 last season. I was one of the few people who were willing to stand by him as a better option than either VDG or Sutil when Sauber were embattled in March.

Thank goodness someone else sees it with the same view as I do. Actually I'm quite sad that he remained with Sauber (I know it was his best option), because I wanted that he Bottas to Ferrari news confirmed so that Nasr could go back to Williams (noting that he almost replaced Bottas before going into this season) and have finally the first "Brazilian" team in F1.

Also @Blotto, then F1 will always have a weak field, because since the 80s this trend only increased. It's impossible to have a F1 with only factory teams + traditional garage owned teams (Williams and Sauber being the perfect example). It's virtually impossible, an utopia. I wish this could happen but this is a certain no-no.

 

[Blotto]

Thank goodness someone else sees it with the same view as I do. Actually I'm quite sad that he remained with Sauber (I know it was his best option), because I wanted that he Bottas to Ferrari news confirmed so that Nasr could go back to Williams (noting that he almost replaced Bottas before going into this season) and have finally the first "Brazilian" team in F1.

Also @Blotto, then F1 will always have a weak field, because since the 80s this trend only increased. It's impossible to have a F1 with only factory teams + traditional garage owned teams (Williams and Sauber being the perfect example). It's virtually impossible, an utopia. I wish this could happen but this is a certain no-no.

that is my point exactly - no paid drivers and a better forumla and revenue sharing.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Kvyat not F1 material? Guess you didn't see his junior records then, pretty much as good as you can possibly get.

Junior records don't count anymore the moment you are in a senior series such as F1. He hasn't impressed me at all so far.

 

[Lorenzo Bonder]

I'd give Kvyat another season in a top tier team. As I said, I think for his first season under a top tier team car under his belt he's doing the best he can (Riccardo was 3rd last season and he is also struggling hard).

 

[Andy 'Mars Bar' Graham]

By mentioning him you made a person happy

You know, he is one of the very few Greek/Cypriot guys to make it on a high level. Therefore, we are quite biased and we don't really know how good he is

He deserves some credit, he's very underrated. He did a fantastic job at Silverstone for FR3.5

 

[Tsfc]

I don't believe f1 (other than top 1/3 of drivers) has the best drivers. I believe it has the best of the drivers who could afford or pull together the funding for it. even most junior programs now are a joke anyway.

The list of drivers who are good enough to be there but can't bring the money and therefore don't get a seat is insanely long. This why it makes me happy to see other series doing decently well like LMP, dtm, sgt. As long as pay drivers exist or better said, as long as drivers are expected to bring funding in one way or another, the very best will not fill all twenty so odd seats, just the top 6 or even 8 maybe (the funding they bring covers their salary mostly in some cases), the rest of seats contain the best of who can afford it.

I've been clawing for two years now just to bring the money to procure a seat in f3 because it's so god damn expensive. You gotta pay to play at this level, fair enough. But now with f1 back markers needing 10-30mil euro or however much it is, it's just insane. Best to stay in single seats until the money dries up then switch to something that drives similarly like a super GT or dtm, maybe to prototypes and have a career, get a bloody pay cheque. What a mess it all is, what a circus.


Still we all dearly love f1... Maybe it's all of us who are nuts

 

[Matheus Machado]

F1 can never be the pinnacle of motor racing again as long as there is just 1 guy who pays for his drive.

So you're saying Niki Lauda wasn't a F1 level driver? If the best drivers don't have backup sponsors they won't get into F1 or any kind of racing. If that isn't true, then why we are not all kart drivers then? As most of us can beat the crap out of those who compete in local championships.

 

[Tsfc]

That's a lot different. It's not that Era anymore, the cars were much more difficult to drive and filtered out many people.

Today's cars are much different to drive, I think just about anyone with a bit of single seater experience can get it around without much incident - the pay driver situation is worse because of this...

Not sure if you're trying to bait him or something but my comment his valid..wasn't talking about Niki or that Era. ..He specifically said ever again...inferring from now on...present time and onwards

 

[Tsfc]

I guess I can see that, nowadays you gotta bring 5-8 mil euro to a mid field team and drive the mid field car up a few places from where it should be to go on with career to one of the proper paying teams.

STILL whack as **** though.

 

[Ghoults]

I think it is a bit of a visual deception. Since the mercedes engine is much better than the rest and the merc constructor team being so much better than everyone else it may look like they are that far beinh just becuase of lack of skill. It is a lot more down the quality of the cars in the field. While I cannot say for 100% certain that webber is wrong to me the issue is more about the cars having so vast performance differences that it masks the driver so well that people may think even drivers like grosjean don't deserve to be in f1.

In a way it is a similar thing when the 2nd ferrari seat was still open and you could read people saying hulkenberg should not get the seat because he has not proven himself with race wins and podiums. Nobody could have won races and get podiums in that force india... In current f1 if you aren't in merc you won't win races 95% of the time. And if you are not in a ferrari or williams you won't get to podiums unless someone else makes a mistake or has dnf.

Imo Maldonado, Grosjean, Ericsson, Kvyat, Mehri and Stevens aren't F1 material. That's 6 out of 20 drivers that occupy racing seats that should have gone to really (raw) talents that are currently sidelined because of a lack of funds.

I find 30% quite a lot but on the other hand the 2010 season he drove in himself: Chandhok, Fake Senna, Yamamoto, Di Grassi, Petrov and Alguersuari weren't exactly world class either

Grosjean was beating kimi on the latter part of the season when they were driving. Grosjean is one of the top blokes in f1 atm who have very bad car.

As for kvyat franz tost who is the toro rosso team principal rates kvyat higher than ricciardo.

I find it just bizarre that someone could put grosjean to that kind of ist and not put someone like perez there...

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

I find it just bizarre that someone could put grosjean to that kind of ist

Because personal opinion?

 

[Michael Watts]

The 2010 season was probably the best season F1 has had in 5 years. Any car could win, Ferrari, McLaren, Redbull...The championship came down to the wire. Since only one factory has dominated the series each year. I'd say F1 has gone down the toilet as a sport over the last 5 years, and smaller teams are being pushed out because of money. As I've said before the Rich get Richer, and the Slow get Poorer.

 

[Trimaz]

With the exception of of Stevens, Ericsson and Maldonado, I believe all remaining drivers have some great talent and potential.

 

[Trimaz]

Imo Maldonado, Grosjean, Ericsson, Kvyat, Mehri and Stevens aren't F1 material. That's 6 out of 20 drivers that occupy racing seats that should have gone to really (raw) talents that are currently sidelined because of a lack of funds.

I find 30% quite a lot but on the other hand the 2010 season he drove in himself: Chandhok, Fake Senna, Yamamoto, Di Grassi, Petrov and Alguersuari weren't exactly world class either

You might want t check out Kvyat's junior career and reassess whether he still belongs in F1 or not.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniil_Kvyat

 

[Michael Watts]

Well if you look at some of the other top racing series, you have guys that supposedly couldn't cut the mustard in F1 backmarkers winning races.. championships. Guys that never got a chance to run in good equipment. Hamilton and Rosberg would be scrubs if they had to run Manor equipment.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

You might want t check out Kvyat's junior career and reassess whether he still belongs in F1 or not.

Already answered above in post #24

 

[Matheus Machado]

Today's cars are much different to drive, I think just about anyone with a bit of single seater experience can get it around without much incident - the pay driver situation is worse because of this...

I bet those F3 drivers can't drive the formula 1s, easy to drive or not, they are still 1:1 power ratio beasts eating up corners at 300kph.
Take a look at Kyviat for an example.

 

[Tsfc]

Didn't verstappen just come up from formula 3 though? Not saying it's every driver who can, just that it is possible.

 

[InsaneOzzie]

Well it got stronger when you left, sour Aussie muppet.

"I'd like to see you do better, but ignorance is Bliss ain't it"